Case Docket

Summaries of our current and historical civil rights cases.

We have a rich history of litigating important civil rights cases on behalf of the most vulnerable in society. Our cases have smashed remnants of Jim Crow segregation; destroyed some of the nation’s most notorious white supremacist groups; and upheld the rights of minorities, children, women, the disabled and others who faced discrimination and exploitation. Many of our cases have changed institutional practices, stopped government or corporate abuses, and set precedents that helped thousands.

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Date Filed

May 20, 2015

State employees at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as “Angola,” routinely and systemically failed to properly assess, diagnose and treat the medical problems of people who are incarcerated at the largest prison in the state, which for years has had the world’s highest rate of...

Date Filed

April 13, 2018

On April 3, 2018, journalist Manuel Duran was unlawfully arrested by Memphis police while reporting live at a peaceful demonstration connected with the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Even after the charges were dropped, local officials handed him over to U.S...

Date Filed

November 07, 2018

The Martinez family was traveling along a Mississippi highway in 2017 – on their way to a vacation – when a sheriff’s deputy stopped them for no apparent reason. The family was then detained by the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office for approximately four hours based solely on the fact that they...

Date Filed

July 01, 2019

After Florida voters overwhelmingly passed Amendment 4 in 2018, which restored the right to vote to over 1.4 million residents who had completed their sentences for felony convictions, the Legislature introduced and passed a law known as SB 7066, which requires people with past felony...

Date Filed

December 03, 2018

Peter Sean Brown was illegally detained in Florida’s Monroe County jail for deportation despite his repeated pleas to authorities that he was a U.S. citizen and the county’s own jail file showing that he was born in Philadelphia. The SPLC filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Brown, whose Fourth...

Date Filed

June 19, 2017

Two New Orleans bail bond companies working with two other businesses charged clients hidden and illegal fees – even sending armed bounty hunters to kidnap clients and extort money from their friends and family. The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit to stop the practice.

Date Filed

January 24, 2018

After the Trump administration made changes to the federal Medicaid program that threatened to strip health insurance away from millions of low-income people, the SPLC filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Kentucky residents in danger of losing their coverage.

Date Filed

March 12, 2015

Judicial Correction Services (JCS), a private probation company, collected money from impoverished Alabamians by threatening them with jail when they fell behind on paying fines from traffic violations or other citations in the city of Clanton. The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a federal lawsuit accusing JCS of violating federal racketeering laws.

Date Filed

December 05, 2017

The city of Corinth, Mississippi, and Municipal Court Judge John C. Ross operated a modern-day debtors’ prison, unlawfully jailing poor people for their inability to pay bail and fines. The SPLC and another civil rights group filed a ...

Date Filed

May 30, 2018

The North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has revoked the licenses of hundreds of thousands of people simply because they cannot afford to pay traffic fines and court costs. The SPLC filed a federal lawsuit seeking to end the practice, which disproportionately harms African-American...